ENGL 680M: New Media

As I was reading _Remediation_, I kept admiring the book layout. Wow! the footnotes are right here, in the margins! And they are at a decent size so I don't have to squint! Look at the references to other pages! And then I realized, duh, it's a hypertext in handy print form.

After reading Remediation I looked up Orlan on Google. Wow. I suppose the notion that even the body can be remediated is very postmodern. Come to think of it, I'm certain that the body has always been remediated in various ways (even through our various attachments to clothes) so it's not a matter of possible/not possible; however, the extent to which the body can now be remediated is mind boggling. Even more so, shows like Dr. 90210 and others about plastic surgery are essentially remediations about remediations.

Halo 3 for the Xbox360 comes out in about two weeks, and it will come out to much fanfare. Not only is it the continuation of a series that basically defined the Xbox itself, but it promises further innovation in both the first-person shooter genre (previously the bread and butter of PC gaming) and online co-op play.

Right now I am SCREEEEEEAMing at the computer because I can't get drupal to change my photo on here but this medium only allows me to type words into the box and not to record the rage of Viking blood bellowing through the centuries. Ok, that might be a bit extreme...

Shall I make this moment to talk about new media? Does "our" "definition" of "new media" tend to "always" default to The Visual? Will writing become obsolete if computers turn to voice recognition/command only?

We discussed in Friday’s class that many computer applications look like things we’d see in an office, like the old trash can icon or the new recycle bin icon, paper clip and clipboard icons, and the little disk that means save, even though hardly anyone saves on floppy disks anymore. Cat, I think, even mentioned that she can make her Word documents look like notebook paper if she wants. These familiar images are comforting.

In light of our discussion on access to technology and such, I thought I'd post this article I just read on Yahoo News. Of course since it's a piece from pop culture news it doesn't layout any critique or deep thoughts about what access means or doesn't mean. But I thought it interesting to find the topic showing itself.

In Remediation this week the authors (so far) have written extensively about the way that the medium tries to erase itself from our awareness of the material. If I am looking at a painting on the computer it should be like I am experiencing the painting face to paint, rather than face to screen. If I am reading a story the ultimate goal is for me to forget I am reading and be in the text. We can see this theme, this idea of direct contact, "authentic" experience, in lots of our texts.

Morgan, I have been thinking about the discussion you started on Friday at the start of class. You asked if there was such a thing as a peaceful culture. I have been thinking about some pre-Civil War Indian cultures as peaceful. They valued land, each other, their peace. They fought when their hunting grounds or food supplies, which directly impacted their livelihoods, were threatened.

me likey the wii.

that's all for now...more to come, i'm sure, since today seems to be an exercise in procrastination...

http://www.chorewars.com/